Australia Bushfire
A firefighter hoses down bushland after a bushfire passed through the area near homes in the Sydney suburb of Pymble November 8, 2013. New South Wales remains on high alert, as numerous bushfires continue to burn around the Sydney metropolitan region and more than 60 fires around the state. REUTERS/David Gray

A news report by the Climate Council, a research group for climate change, has warned that Victoria has to be prepared for a dangerous season for bushfires. The report has been titled "Be Prepared: Climate Change And the Victoria Bushfire Threat." In Australia, Victoria was the worst state for experiencing bushfires.

According to BBC News, the report said that the expectancy of the bushfire season had been upgraded to "major" from "above normal" after taking into consideration the warm weather in October in addition to the forecasted hot and dry conditions. In 2014, the cost of bushfires in Victoria was projected to be more than AU$172 million. It stated that the risks of bushfires had increased because of the growth in population, vulnerable assets in areas that are prone to bushfires as well as the warm weather.

Professor Lesley Hughes, the author of the report, said that the estimated projections were made taken into consideration only the growth in population as well as assets. He said that it did not incorporate the risk of bushfires with regards to climate change and if that was taken into consideration, then the risk could potentially be higher. He explained that Victoria, in recent years, had experienced the most costly as well as deadly fire seasons in Australia despite the fact that it accounted for only 3 percent of the total land mass of the country. He added that the because of an urban sprawl, Victorians were more vulnerable to the fire. He said that there were a lot of people who lived in close proximity to the flammable bushlands.

The state government has launched a bushfire advertising campaign. The ad shows Victorians to take off from their home early and not adopt the usual wait-and-see approach with regards to bushfires. The Climate Council report stated that the number of firefighters had to be doubled by 2030 so that they would be able to cope with the threat of bushfires. Daniel Andrews, the new premier of Victoria, said that firefighters should not be expected to come knocking door-to-door when they were fighting fires. He said that waiting to see or last minute planning could be fatal and one should instead leave and live.